Athletes 1 - 1 EKODA (371471675)

It had rained all day, but 42188 hardy fans still made it out to Castle of the Athletes. Roberto Fabbricini was the appointed referee with assistance provided by Claudio Laino and Tommi Lajunen. All of Tokyo was shut down for the day, as fans of both clubs came to the derby. Athletes decided to use a 5-4-1 set up. Starters: Norinskiy - Mitsuwa, 亀山 (Kameyama), Mizofuchi, Omori, 後藤 (Goto) - Toru, Komagata, Miyama, Pusam - van Veenendaal.

A 3-5-2 alignment was the formation of choice for EKODA. They fielded: Soto - Cerón, Montenegro, Santi - Favre, Ghiorghiof, Dağ, Mandl, Ben Dhifallah - Chihara, Greweling.

Athletes clearly had decided to counter-attack when they could. Down the middle came R. Ben Dhifallah, making a fantastic play that nearly had EKODA take the lead after 4 minutes, but O. Norinskiy preserved the tie. The opposing supporters gave the referee an earful when he only gave O. Dağ from EKODA a yellow card after a mistimed challenge from behind 9 minutes into the game. That was far too lenient! After 13 minutes, Athletes raised their score by one when M. Pusam's dangerous low cross was cleverly tucked in at the near post by G. van Veenendaal. 1 - 0. Good work by the Athletes defensive line after 23 minutes produced a good counterattack chance, which cut elegantly down the middle of the pitch and found D. Mizofuchi alone in front of the goal, but his shot whistled just wide. With 27 minutes played, EKODA's well-worked indirect free kick caused havoc in the penalty area, and when the ball eventually fell to H. Chihara he gleefully slotted the ball home to make it 1 - 1. O. Norinskiy looked great 31 minutes into the match after stopping a shot from the middle of the penalty area from the visitors' H. Greweling. 1 - 1 was the score after the first half. EKODA had most of the ball, with 65 percent of possession.

Thighs bulging, M. Ghiorghiof charged past the weaker players, seemingly oblivious to the rain. O. Dağ had a good opportunity to give EKODA the lead as he charged down the right and struck the ball towards the top corner, but the home team's goalkeeper made the save. The rain made it hard for players like G. van Veenendaal to show their technical control of the ball on this soggy day. EKODA's H. Greweling was shown a yellow card for standing over the ball and blocking an opponent's quick free kick after 70 minutes. Athletes's defence sent a ball soaring up the middle on a beautiful counterattack with 78 minutes gone, but G. van Veenendaal's finish was met by the reaching hands of the keeper. Possession in the forty-five minutes was dominated by EKODA, with 68 percent of the ball.

Most important Athletes player was D. Mizofuchi. M. Komagata on the other hand, had a terrible day. EKODA's best player was M. Ghiorghiof. Í. Soto turned in a dismal performance, however. The match ends 1 - 1.